Penn vs Golsbee
Highly Paid Chief Strategist who heads a firm who was being paid millions of dollars by a foreign government to lobby the US government to pass a new trade deal and who traveled to said foreign country for the purpose of meeting with officials from said foreign government to represent a position diametrically opposed to his candidate
vs
Unpaid volunteer economic advisor / professor who in the course of a conversation with a low level foreign official from a country who shares a border and with whom we have extensive diplomatic and economic ties discusses an existing trade deal and his candidate's long-standing position
YOU DECIDE
vs
Unpaid volunteer economic advisor / professor who in the course of a conversation with a low level foreign official from a country who shares a border and with whom we have extensive diplomatic and economic ties discusses an existing trade deal and his candidate's long-standing position
YOU DECIDE
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The biggest difference between Columbia-Penn and Canada-Goulsbee has never been brought to light and again, a profit mongering press is somewhat to blame.
At no time during the dust-up over Goulsbee/NAFTA did any major outlet point out that there is no greater consumer of US Goods in the world than Canada. Canada consumes 20% of our exports and we account for 76% of their imports and 80% of their exports.
Canada has strong labor unions, pays a fair wage and vigorously enforces labor laws. It does not send goon squads out after opposition figures. I personally had no problem with the Goulsbee thing and I live in Ohio. I know how much a fair part of our economy does depend on trade with Canada.
The thrust of complaints regarding NAFTA is the reciprocity with Mexico, where next to none of the favorables that apply to Canadian-US labor law are evident in Mexico, and certainly not in Columbia.
April 9, 2008 9:37 AM | Reply | Permalink